Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been canceled. Refunds are available at the point of purchase.
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, widely regarded as one of the most influential and beloved Americana artists of the 21st century, are embarking on a North American tour with a new, all-star line-up: Adams, Brad Pemberton, Chris Stills, Daniel Clarke & Don Was.
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In 2005 when Brad and I had this mutual dream, we recorded Cold Roses in what can only be described as a state of being inside some kind of magic. We were part of it, shaping it, but Cardinals were a state of mind, and we were set adrift in the magic, in its rapids, falling forever over and over the falls off the edge of the world.
I remember discussing the artwork for Cold Roses with Brad over a few cold pops. “Let’s make the cover a book of magic…” as we talked about how weird it was we both felt this album above all would be important to us later, how we knew those days were a zenith point and going to not even seem real, Brad in his chess player magician way leaned in and said, “we need to leave a breadcrumb trail in that book if we ever want to get back here someday.” That grin. That squinty eyed grin of his.
We believed in the Cold Roses book of magic. We believed it so much we made a doorway if we ever wanted to find a way back.
If you look inside the artwork within Cold Roses, you’ll see a portal in there. I remember making that call to the art director and manager. “Look, I know it’s 2 am but we just left the studio and we need a portal in there – a window to another place with different weather on the other side.”… The line was as silent as the bar was loud, it was a pay phone – remember those – “okay” the voice answered flatly and amused. “Just make it look like there’s a window out of that book – inside the vinyl maybe on the slip sleeve insert – into a different time or dimension, some unknown other one.” Go look. It’s there.
Recently the signs have been everywhere. Brad and I kept up but were calling each other way more frequently – strange things were afoot. Spacewolf’s bass pick somehow ended up in a glass holder in my master bath. Next to where I keep this postcard Neal sent me with this psychedelic waterfall. Brad ran across a book of lyrics and drawings from back then, our old tour guidebook. The lights turned on and off in my house on days I played at home but in different rooms on different lamps. It felt like a warm hug. Like a sign.
Brad and I have both felt the gravity of those songs calling us home. The state of mind of what the living song in its own form was had returned to us both like a neon sign slowly lighting up in the fog and rain. After a few phone calls we knew it was time to find the portal. To take it to the future we left in it and continue this dream where it started.
That time is now. This is that future. Our spirits are calling to the other time in a living ache in a ghost dance.
It’s time.
Welcome to the other side. Welcome back, all.
Let’s go find out what we were meant to build here on the other side. Let’s ride this moon beast again across the valley – until we reach the plateau. Warpaint and wind.
For Spacewolf [Chris Feinstein], For Neal [Casal]… for this beautiful thing we left unfinished. And for you. Risk. Clouds. Motion. The open sky and the plateau. It’s time.
-Ryan Adams
Tickets are on sale as of March 31.
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